


Thermal Equilibrium

by doomenatta



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Internalized Homophobia, Moving In Together, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 16:53:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doomenatta/pseuds/doomenatta
Summary: Ruby Ruffin is a freshly risen sophomore at Diamandis College: Empire City's resident community college. She's barely made it through her freshman year, and now she's faced with the dilemma of not being able to afford on campus housing for the next one. Desperate for a roommate, she takes to her dear friend Lapis to beg for a spot at her and her girlfriend's.Sapphire Collins is a rising junior at Blue Court University: a prestigious four year with an impeccable reputation. With her funding from her parents abruptly cut off amidst the tumultuous sea of accusations of her being homosexual, she's left in the same boat. The scholarship and grants she's managed to secure don't cover housing.Fate brings them together at a coffee house, and Sapphire can't help but think that there's a good joke about u-hauling it somewhere in this situation.





	Thermal Equilibrium

 

Sapphire sat in the desolate cafe with her entirely too expensive cappuccino sitting steaming on the table next to her laptop. On said laptop was the entirely too frustrating email thread with Blue Court’s incompetent financial aid officers, and her hands were in her lap wringing themselves dry while she tried to think of what to reply. Annoyance consumed her. Entirely so.

 _While I do regret your financial situation,_ they began, _I am afraid that there is not much we can do in the way of further assisting you. We suggest finding alternate means for housing that do not go through the university._

_We hope we have been of some help._

Sapphire wanted to scream. They hadn’t been of any help. In fact, they had been the precise, exact _opposite_ of helpful, and it made her want to stand atop the glass coffee table and scream her damn lungs out. She didn’t, of course, but the feeling of want burning in her chest resigned her twirling hands to typing out a hasty message. Nothing much, just thanking them for help they hadn’t delivered. She found herself deleting many inadvertent instances of rudeness, and she decided that it was probably best if she kept it short.

The bell on the cafe door rang and her gaze was drawn blindly upwards for just a moment before being dropped again. She quickly scanned her reply for any mistakes, penny-pinching her words so all that was said was what was needed. The send button was pressed with finality, and she sat back after grabbing her drink.

Slight sweetness bloomed on her tongue. She smoothed out her skirt when she was done with her sip, smoothed out her hair when her skirt was done, and sat the cup back on the table top. She was exhausted, and it showed.

Her sophomore year could not have ended worse.

She pinched the bridge of her nose under her bangs, trying to smooth her expression out.

“Hey, uh…” nervous words wormed their way past her frustrated stupor. Sapphire looked up only to find a girl hovering hesitantly by the counter. The unimpressed barista paused in her counter-wiping (Sapphire noticed that she hadn’t gotten much done in the past hour that she’d been there, though) and leaned forward to hear her out, “I know you already have a roommate, but I’m really in some shit here, Lappy,” Sapphire silently flicked her gaze over the girl at the counter, her heart in her throat at the thought that she could get this over with so easily. She was short, very short, and her wild hair was barely contained by the messy bun atop her head. Sapphire couldn’t see much under the button up shirt over the basketball shorts, but her legs looked like they could belong to a track star. She had dense muscle that tensed up as she stood on her tiptoes to reach over the counter. Showed she had drive, at least. Not bad roommate material aside from the dreadful fashion sense, if she said so herself.

“Sorry, Roobs. Peri and I don’t exactly have the room-”

“I could sleep on the floor!”

“Lappy” snorted and threw her rag down onto the counter.

“I am _not_ living in a one bedroom apartment with three people in it.”

“Come oooon.”

“No.”

“Lappy pleeeaaasee,” Ruby threw herself onto the counter and grabbed Lappy’s hands.

“No! Jesus, Ruby, grow a pair and start asking around campus,” Lappy snapped her hands away, and with that, it seemed as if the conversation was over, much to Ruby’s displeasure. Her head dropped with a resounding “thunk” onto the counter.

“Lapis, I-” she interrupted herself with a frustrated groan, rubbing her hand roughly against her face. She was still leaning against the counter top, barely tall enough to even get her torso onto it. “I found a place. Can you at least tell me if you guys know anyone that's looking? The rent's too much for me to deal with on my own-”

Sapphire, looking at her closed laptop one last time with an icy gaze that grounded her, cleared her throat and hoped that she wouldn't end up regretting this.

“I am.”

Lapis stopped her snappy remark to turn to Sapphire in surprise. Ruby’s head shot up from the counter to see who said what, and her eyes widened once they landed on Sapphire.

Sapphire, in turn, straightened her back, sitting taller and shifting to look at them better. 

“Yes! Yes, I don’t even care, I don't- Can you afford thirteen hundred a month?!” Ruby seemed to be over the moon, falling off of the counter and regarding Sapphire with excited eyes, and Sapphire relaxed just the tiniest bit. The price was a bit of a downer, but there was nothing tethering her to this excited woman. If it didn't work out, she reasoned, she could always keep looking.

“Yes.”

“YES!”

Before she knew it, Ruby was in front of her, barely containing herself. Sapphire was almost afraid of her knocking over the coffee table and her laptop, but she pushed the urge to shush her aside in favor of trying to make the best possible impression. Her freshly manicured hand was caught up in a rough, calloused grip.

“I’m Ruby. Ruby Ruffin. The place I’ve got set up is only a studio, but it’s only twenty-six hundred a month, and it’s actually really close to the subway. Oh, and...”

Sapphire let her carry on like that for a moment, too swept up in Ruby's whirlwind of excitement to even begin formulating a response to all… this. Ruby’s grip was warm and friendly in its vigorous handshake, and Sapphire felt like she needed to say something _._  Ruby stopped suddenly, though.

“Oh, my god, I never even asked you your name.”

“Sapphire,” she blurted, worried about getting interrupted yet again only to hear a loud snort behind her.

“Ruby and Sapphire, shacking it up.”

Sapphire withdrew her hand as Ruby's attention shifted briefly towards the barista. A glare was shot, and there was something said about being one to talk of ridiculous names, but Sapphire was already a few steps ahead of herself.

If the place was unlivable, she could look around the quad for sororities looking for recruits. It wasn't ideal, of course, but it was something. She thought that she heard Marina Afon saying something about Beta Delta Sigma looking for new girls. Her parents would be over the moon at her joining it if they were still talking to her, and it would be a considerable step towards reconciliation however insincere it would be.

Though, it may cost even less to live with this Ruby character. She'd have to see-

“Can’t help it if my parents were hippies, man,” Lapis threw her rag over her shoulder and disappeared back into the kitchen.

Ruby turned back to Sapphire, an earnest smile on her face.

“Sapphire, huh? Pretty name. Ahh, I’m so happy! You wanna go see the place?” Sapphire's hand was dropped unceremoniously as Ruby took a step back. She cast a look down at her laptop, the sight of it just frustrating her now that she’d “resolved” her conversation with Blue Court, and couldn’t think of a reason other than her coffee to stay.

“I can get you a to-go cup,” Ruby offered.

Sapphire looked at her.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I've wanted to write an SU fanfic for forever, and originally this was supposed to be a high school AU, but now that I'm going into college soon, I find it more fitting to have it in a college setting. I hope to get more posted for this soon since I absolutely love Ruby and Sapph, but life is nuts and I just wanted to get this out there.
> 
> As always, hope you enjoyed, and feel free to leave a comment! I love getting feedback.


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